Sanctuary
by MutantLover09
Summary: When Danny is injured badly in a fight, he manages to get away by taking refuge in a sanctuary in the Ghost Zone. While there he contemplates the good and bad times of his life. Part of I.M.R Duelists's challenge.


ML: This is a one-shot as a part of I.M.R Duelist's challenge. Basically Danny is injured badly in a fight, he manages to get away by taking refuge in a sanctuary in the Ghost Zone. While there he contemplates the good and bad times in his life. This takes place just before PP.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

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Sanctuary

A Danny Phantom one-shot

From the moment I entered the Ghost Zone I just knew something bad was going to happen. Maybe it was intuition or maybe just a random feeling, but I knew something was going to happen. But I forced the feeling away and went in anyway. I was on my way to see Frostbite about a rumor I'd heard of a ghost rebellion being planned in the Ghost Zone. I wasn't sure if it was true, but decided to check it out anyway. What could it hurt?

As it turned out, a lot.

"Dude, are you sure you don't want us to come with you," Tucker asked sitting backwards on a chair in my parent's lab. He was fiddling with his pda, and only glanced up at me to ask that question.

"Yeah, I'm sure Tuck," I said changing into my ghost form. I always loved the feeling of cold rushing up my spine. It had been a little challenging to get used to at first but as I changed more and more I started to enjoy it. As the rings passed over my body I felt powerful, energy seemed to surge through my chest, down into my fingers and toes and fizzling out into a tingle on the tips of my ears. Like I said it was an odd sensation, but enjoyable nonetheless.

"I'll be in and out in an hour tops," I told him coolly, chancing a glance at Sam.

She was leaning against the counter top behind Tuck, a thoughtful expression on her face. She didn't appear to be looking at anything in particular but her eyes still sparkled with that deep violet that sometimes I could lose myself in. I felt the edges of my lips quirk up into a smile, when Sam's nose wrinkled and her eyebrows scrunched together. My light smiled disappeared when she glanced up at me, eyes troubled, "Danny I don't like you going alone."

I shook my head ruefully and walked up to her, "I'll be fine Sam. I've gone into the Ghost Zone before and nothings happened, don't you trust me?"

Sam seemed to consider my words before nodding, "I trust you Danny, it's just this feeling I've got." She looked away again and rolled her shoulders, "It's weird."

I patted her on the shoulder and headed towards the portal, the swirling green energy casting strange patterns across the tile floor. I looked back over my shoulder at my two best friends, half my face covered in the green glow of the portal, "If I'm not back in an hour then Tuck I give you permission to have all my Humpty Dumpty cd's."

Tucker snorted and delved into a fit of laughter slapping his knee with mirth. I chuckled as well stepping into the portal, my last image of Sam's face. She didn't laugh at my joke, her face was still troubled, withdrawn. I'll probably never forget it.

The frigid atmosphere of the Ghost Zone hit me like a tangible force causing a shiver to dance down my spine. I blinked a few times to get used to the change of light. It was much brighter in the Ghost Zone than in the human world. Especially when you weren't behind the protective shield of the specter speeder, I'm guessing it's because everything is glowing. It's kind of like when you first step outside in the morning and the sun burns your corneas, not pleasant I must say.

After only a moment my eyes adjusted and I flew deeper into Ghost Zone. Even though I'd never told anybody I always felt sort of at home in the Ghost Zone. It must be because I'm part ghost because every time I go in there, I just get this calming sensation. Like I'd been trying to get somewhere for my whole life and I'd finally managed to make it there.

Pushing the blissful feeling away I focused on the best path to Frostbite's lair, mapping it out in my head. I could go the long way by flying around Skulker's island and Desiree's lair and come around on the north side of Klemper's lair. Of course if I took this path I'd most likely be shot at by Skulker, bad-mouthed by Desiree, and hugged to death by Klemper. Not exactly what I'd call fun.

Or I could take the short way and go past Walker's prison, I shuddered involuntarily. Walker still had it out for me and I didn't like going near him if I could avoid it. He hadn't taken a shot at me in awhile so maybe if I went fast he wouldn't even notice me. And taking the short path I'd make it to Frostbite and back in under an hour. Sam and Tuck wouldn't have to worry.

What could it hurt?

I turned my body to the east and towards Walker's prison, keeping my fluorescent gaze locked on the path ahead. I felt the ominous presence of the prison before I saw it and I came to a halt on a floating chunk of rock just outside of the prison. I was a good fifteen feet away and had a clear view of the enormous glowing prison. Every time I set eye on it I felt scared, only because I envisioned myself behind those walls, trapped unable to escape. It had already happened once, and I swore it would never happen again. Not on my life, or afterlife.

It didn't look like anyone, excuse me anyghost's were around. But that didn't mean that the way was clear, quite the contrary. Walker was tricky. He sometimes let his anger get the best of him, but all in all he was someone to avoid; especially if he hated your guts because you broke his "rules".

My ghost sense went off, but I ignored it, letting the chilling sensation run down my spine. I was in the Ghost Zone; of course it would go off. My eyes scanned the area before me, gleaming in triumph when the way was still clear.

I bent my knees in preparation to leap back into the air when something, strong, hard and painful collided with my back. I cried out flipping head first into the green atmosphere, my back stinging and eyes watering. I managed to right myself and spun around, forcing away the hot fiery pain racing up my spine, and came face to face with Walker.

But he wasn't alone.

Walker, his arms crossed behind his back in a calm manner, was flanked by two rows of ghost goons, all grinning evilly. "Well, well, well, what do we have here," Walker drawled a sneer crossing his skull like face. His face was always disgusting. Pale white skin stretched tight over an angular face, black eyes that seemed to bore into my soul, and the cracked and lifeless lips pulled over a cruel smile.

"You must have a death wish, Phantom for coming so close to my prison," the sneer became more evident and I had to grit my teeth to keep from lashing out.

"I'm just passing through, Walker," I said keeping my voice as steady as possible. "I don't want any trouble."

Walker threw back his head and laughed, his goons followed suit and soon my ears were ringing with their insane laughter. Walker put up a hand and immediately the laugher ceased. "You may not be looking for trouble punk, but you found it," the ghost warden motioned with his hand and the ghosts behind moved forward, successfully circling around me. "This time you're not getting away."

Everything that happened next went too fast for me to understand exactly what happened. One minute it was a stand off; me against twenty or so ghost guards. We faced each other neither moving, and since we were ghost's, neither breathing. I clenched my hands into fists and willed green energy to leak into my hands, the goons pulled out dangerous looking guns. Each with a look that sent shivers down my spine.

One moment all was silent, even the usual howls and cries of the Zone had ceased. It was just us, good vs. evil, me against overwhelming odds, one teenager against a rule obsessed warden and his ghost armada. One moment I was frozen in time, the next I was in a battle for my life.

The first row attacked first, at least ten of the goons charged me at once, each brandishing a gun and each with a look of hunger on their face. They wanted to hurt me. To them I wasn't just a kid, I was a punching bag that they would gladly beat to an unrecognizable pulp.

Not if I had anything to say about it.

I ducked and weaved. I blasted every thing in my path, sweat poured down my temples stinging the numerous cuts appearing across my ghostly skin. And there was pain, oh yes, pain enough to rival anything I'd ever experienced before. There was too many, if I took down one guard another immediately took its place. And my limbs were becoming sluggish, the adrenaline I'd been running on was leaking away and pure exhaustion was setting in.

My vision blurred momentarily and I blinked my eyes furiously to regain sight, but not fast enough. Some one landed a powerful attack to my jaw, strong enough to flip me backward through the air. Blood exploded inside my mouth, from biting my tongue and a painful crack signified the breaking of at least one bone in my jaw. Before I could gain my bearings another attack caught me in the back of the head, this time I cried out and black covered my vision.

I felt my body fall forward, but since the Ghost Zone had no gravity I wouldn't actually fall. The pain was incredible, I couldn't see, my jaw was throbbing, my tongue ached and I distantly felt a searing burning pain rocketing through my chest and limbs.

A part of me wanted to pass out; it wanted to make the pain go away. If I let go of consciousness the pain would stop, I was on the edge of oblivion anyway. Why not just let go, why not just give up? A sharp pain ran through my shoulder and a sickening popping sound reached my ears, as the joint was wrenched from its socket. The new pain brought me back long enough to open my eyes fully. Every thing was blurry, covered in a thick film of white. I didn't know exactly what I was seeing but knew it was bad.

I felt a blow to my stomach and I gasped out a cry of pain, another blow landed, and another, and another. The next one cracked a rib; I heard it before I felt it. And it hurt, I didn't think a broken rib would hurt so badly, but it did.

Tears leaked out of my eyes, mixing with blood from my broken nose and split lip. I couldn't stop them. Another sharp blow to my cheek knocked my head sideways and blood mixed with ectoplasm burst from my mouth. I only hoped some of it got on Walker's incredibly clean suit.

Oblivion was calling my name, again. And I wanted to go. But I couldn't, I couldn't. I couldn't let Walker win, I couldn't give up now. But the pain, it would go away if I just let the darkness take me. My head was cracked from the butt of a gun and stars erupted behind my eyes. I was so close to giving in but one thing stopped me: Sam.

She needed me. My family, they needed me too. I couldn't give up on them now.

The energy built in me; I don't know where it came from but I felt it. It rose in my broken and bruised chest, leaked into my sore throat and exploded from my cracked lips in a howl of rage. Or more correctly a ghostly wail. I held the wail for as long as I could before the strain became too much. I let the howl die in my throat and my head flopped lifelessly down onto my chest, my arms hung uselessly at my sides and I lost altitude; fast.

I dropped from the air and landed with a thud on hard packed dirt, knocking the wind from me and jostling my broken ribs. I weakly cried out, but stopped when pain shot through my jaw, sharp enough to remind me it was broken as well.

I cracked my eyes open long enough to glimpse my surroundings before shutting them tightly. I was in some sort of clearing surrounded by glowing trees filled with bushy leaves. Around the edge of the clearing were large stones that resembled headstones like you might find at a graveyard, except there were no names on these stones, only strange markings that were oddly soothing. I felt safe here, almost as if it were a sanctuary of sorts.

But it wasn't soothing enough to quell the pain in my body. Strangely enough I was in so much pain I was almost numb; almost. I tried to sit up but hissed in a painful breath when I tried to use my injured shoulder; it was definitely dislocated. I flopped back onto the ground, rolling onto my un-injured shoulder with a suppressed groan of pain. Everything ached, everything hurt. Even my ears were stinging. One of my eyes was swollen shut and the other wasn't far behind. I could tell I had at least two broken or cracked ribs, and maybe a possible concussion.

Judging from the size of the lump on the back of my head it wouldn't surprise me. There was my shoulder and one of my ankles was feeling swollen as well; possibly twisted. I groaned into the dirt, stopping my mental cataloging. There were more injuries, but I didn't want to think about it anymore.

My mind was becoming as hazy as my vision, and I felt it wandering to happier times in a vain attempt to escape the pain. I wasn't going anywhere for a while; or ever for that matter. I found myself thinking of Sam and Tuck; I wonder what they're doing right now?

A hazy picture appeared before my eyes of Sam and Tucker lounging in my basement, eating popcorn and drinking sodas. My mouth began to water. Oh look, there I come and I'm not hurt, oh the soda looks so good. Why can't I taste it?

I stretched out a hand to the image but it disappeared before I could touch it, leaving my bloody wrist to flop onto the ground. I shook my head a little to clear it and reached up behind my head to check the bump, when I pulled my white glove away it was covered in red and green blood, staining deep into the fabric.

Now I was sure I had a concussion. I think hallucinations came from concussions, not that I'd ever had one. Actually, I'd never been hurt this bad. Well, maybe a few times with Vlad but those encounters had never ended this badly.

I growled in my throat for just thinking of that fruit loop. The man was single handedly responsible for some of the worst times of my life. For instance, the Pariah Dark thing, the stranded my mom and I in the middle of nowhere, and let's not forget the ever eventful Vortex incident. I despised that man, with every ounce of my being. And not to mention he was responsible for creating, _him. _

I shivered violently in the dirt. Meeting my future self had been one of the most horrifying events, ever. On a terrifying scale of one to ten it was about a fifteen. I still got nightmares about it sometimes, always of my friends and family dying and me not being able to do anything to stop it.

Why was I thinking about this? It was like I was internally rambling instead of out loud, must be the concussion.

But Vlad had given me at least one good thing; Danielle. I have always wanted a little sister, and I guess a younger, girl clone version of me is good enough to fill that void. I haven't seen her since Vlad tried to melt her again so I hope she's alright. I mean, she's just a kid. Even younger than me, but she's smart. I'm sure she's fine.

My other shoulder was starting to ache and I rolled onto my back, shouting as much as my jaw could allow from the pain. Once on my back, I was left gasping for breath. And considering I don't need to breath in ghost form; that tells you how much agony I was in.

What did I do to deserve this? All I did was step into an experimental portal, with the good intention of fixing it for my parents. Why did this have to happen to me? I could have been normal. If I was normal I wouldn't be here, writhing in pain. I just wanted to go home and curl up in my bed, listening to the sounds of FentonWorks as I slept.

I wish I'd never gotten these powers; they were more of curse than a gift.

'But think of all the good you've done,' a voice in the back of my mind whispered. 'Think what would have happened to your town, your friends, if you hadn't become Danny Phantom.'

That was something to think about. What would have happened if I hadn't gotten these powers? And, even though I'd rather not say it, I had, had good experiences too with my powers. I bonded with my mom, I got closer to my sister and friends, I saved my town from certain doom, and I saw my dad kick Vlad's butt.

So maybe there were down sides to my powers, the never being able to tell my parents, having enemies that wanted to kill me, and getting injured all the time. But there were upsides too. I learned that I have the two most loyal friends a guy could ask for; and the best family of ghost hunters in the world.

I turned my head to the side and spit a mouthful of coagulated blood into the dirt, my head flopped back down vision spinning and blurring around the edges. A new image rose up in front of my eyes and I smiled, blood leaking out of the side of my mouth.

I saw me, Sam and Tuck standing outside FentonWorks, laughing and posing for a camera. Jazz appeared next to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. Mom came next, standing behind us and then dad after he set up the camera. He dashed beside mom and said, in his cheery voice, "Everyone say ghost."

"Ghost," we shouted together all grinning widely. The camera snapped, before the image faded out. I chuckled weakly, the chuckle quickly turned into a coughing fit that shook my battered frame, forcing tears to run out of my tightly squeezed eyes creating tracks through the dried blood and dirt on my cheeks.

Oblivion beckoned again, more insistent this time, and I couldn't resist its call. My broken chest heaved once before I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.

What could it hurt?

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ML: Did he die? Did he live? I don't know that's why it's a one-shot. As of now this is in fact a one-shot but with a few persuasive reviews it might become more. So if you liked it review and vote for your friendly neighborhood MutantLover, so she can win the challenge.


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